A number of heat exchange apparatuses exist wherein a liquid and a gas are brought into direct contact with each other for effecting a transfer of heat and mass from one fluid to the other, for example, cooling towers.
In typical cooling tower constructions, hot liquid to be cooled gravitates downwardly through the cooling tower while air is simultaneously circulated through the tower. The cooling of the liquid is basically accomplished by the direct contact of the air and liquid, wherein heat is transferred from the surface of the liquid to the circulating air. The efficiency with which the aforementioned direct contact heat transfer occurs is primarily dependent on the amount of liquid surface area that is generated within the heat exchange apparatus and the amount of that surface area comes into contact with the air.
Most of the heat exchange apparatuses designed for these types of processes employ some physical structure, such as a heat transfer media or fill assembly, whose primary purpose is to provide liquid surface area for heat exchange. This surface area functions to increase fluid-air contact, therefore providing more heat exchange between the liquid and gas. The heat transfer media can include, for example, a splash bar type heat transfer media which promotes the generation of liquid droplets, or it may alternatively include a film type heat transfer media, which promotes the generation of thin, liquid films for heat exchange.
The aforementioned splash bars typically span large distances across the cooling tower in which they are employed. The splash bars are typically supported in the cooling tower by a series of frame assemblies and/or support grids that function to support the individual bars while also preventing the sagging of the bars. The support grids function to offset the splash bars both vertically and horizontally, providing maximum surface area for the falling liquid to contact, providing for heat exchange between the liquid and air. The support grids typically employ bar attachment features such as separate wires or clips that secure the individual splash bars to the support grids, because there is a tendency for the splash bars to become dislodged or loose, due to impingement by water and the air flow through the cooling tower. Theses clips are typically connected to the grids via mechanical attachment methods and/or means. Alternatively, the aforementioned clips may be integral with the grids.
The aforementioned support grids and bar attachment features have drawbacks however. The use of the support grids which employ the separate wires or clips can be somewhat costly in terms of material cost and/or the amount of time required for installation, because present techniques for mounting the wire or clips are undesirable and labor intensive. Also, while the support grids with integral clips alleviate some or all of the labor required to mount the individual clips, the presence of the internal clips can make the mounting of splash bars difficult during cooling tower assembly. For example, cooling towers oftentimes employ very lengthy elongated splash bars or the like that span multiple bays within the tower and therefore the splash bars are supported by multiple support grids. Accordingly, the splash bars are slid from one grid to the other during cooling tower assembly. The aforementioned sliding of the bars oftentimes causes the splash bars to snag or catch the integral clips, causing the clips to deform or break. Thus, installation of the of the splash bars again becomes labor intensive, requiring that the bars be supported or lifted over the clips by multiple “installers” in order to prevent the deformation or breaking of the clips during splash bar installation.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art to provide an apparatus and method for supporting and fastening cooling tower splash bars or the like. It is further desirable to provide a cooling tower support grid that provides for the effective and efficient, in terms of cost and labor, mounting of splash bars during the assembly of cooling towers.